From: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
The Corinthians Are Still Unspiritual
Apostolic Ministry
[5] What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed,
as the Lord assigned to each. [6] I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
growth. [7] So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only
God who gives the growth. [8] He who plants and he who waters are equal, and
each shall receive his wages according to his labor. [9] For we are God’s fellow
workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
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Commentary:
1-3. The Christians of Corinth have themselves to blame for their inability to
grasp everything they have been taught. The counterposing of spirit and flesh
does not mean that there are two kinds of people in the Church; it is, rather, a
fatherly reproach on the Apostle’s part: through Baptism they are called to a full
(intellectual and practical) grasp of spiritual truths; but because they are letting
themselves be led by human principles they are still in a state of lethargy. As St
John Chrysostom comments, the reason is that “unclean living makes it difficult
for a person to know the truth. Just as a man who is blinded by error cannot for
long keep to the right road, so too is it very difficult for someone who is leading a
bad life to accept the demands our sublime mysteries make on us. To embrace
truth one needs to be detached from all one’s passions [...]. This freedom of soul
must be total, if one is to attain truth” (”Hom. on 1 Cor”, 8, “ad loc.”).
“As babes in Christ”: St Paul is not referring to the spiritual childhood taught by
Jesus Christ (cf. Mt 18:1-6; 1 Pet 2:2). The Apostle uses this comparison to
show that one needs to make progress in the Christian life: a Christian has a
duty to develop the infused virtues he received in Baptism. To be more specific,
the Apostle mentions “jealousy and strife” (v. 3) as two great sins which are
paralyzing the Corinthians: they leave a Christian in a lamentable, unspiritual
state and prevent him from attaining the spiritual things to which he has been
called (cf. Heb 5:12-17).
4-17. Using the dissension at Corinth (cf. 1:11-13), which clearly shows that the
Corinthians are still acting in a very unspiritual way (v. 4), St Paul describes the
true nature of apostolic office. He especially emphasizes that God is the source
of all apostolic work: it is he “who gives the growth” (v. 7); man is God’s instru-
ment — a servant or minister (v. 5), a fellow worker (v. 9)—in this task, which can
only be carried out if Jesus Christ is its foundation (v. 11). St Paul develops
these ideas using two effective similes—a field (vv. 6-9) and a building (vv. 9-17).
5-7. Using a comparison with farm work, St Paul shows the instrumental role
men and women play in the apostolate. Only God, through his grace, can make
the seed of faith take root and bear fruit in souls: “It may be that going and wee-
ping they [God’s workers] cast their seeds; it may be with anxious care they
nourished it; but to make it sprout and bring forth the cherished fruit, this is the
work of God alone and his powerful assistance. This, also, is to be considered
that men are more than instruments which God uses for the saving of souls and
that these instruments must be fit, therefore, to be handled by God” (St Pius X,
“Haerent Animo”, 9).
In this sense, every effort man makes is to no avail (cf. v. 7); yet God chooses
to use man’s input to produce supernatural fruit which is totally disproportionate:
“We must remember that we are only instruments,” St. J. Escriva points out,
“’What is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you have believed,
as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but only God gives the
growth’ (1 Cor 3:4-6). The teaching, the message which we have to communicate,
has in its own right an infinite effectiveness which comes not from us but from
Christ. It is God himself who is bent on bringing about salvation, on redeeming
the world” (”Christ Is Passing By”, 159).
8. The recompense God gives someone who works in the building up of the
Church has not so much to do with his particular mission (the various jobs are
“equal”), or with the kind of harvest, as with the work itself, the effort one puts
into the God-given job. “Since Christians have different gifts (cf. Rom 12:6) they
should collaborate in the work of the Gospel, each according to his opportunity,
ability, charism and ministry (cf. 1 Cor 3:10); all who sow and reap (cf. Jn 4:37),
plant and water, should be one (cf. 1 Cor 3:8) so that ‘working together for the
same end in a free and orderly manner’ (”Lumen Gentium”, 18) they might to-
gether devote their powers to the building up of the Church” (Vatican II, “Ad
Gentes”, 28). Therefore, what really matters is that one does whatever job one
has been given with the maximum love possible, without losing heart: “[my cho-
sen ones] shall not labor in vain”, the Lord assures them, through the prophet
Isaiah (65:23).
9. “God’s field, God’s building”. The Second Vatican Council uses these images
to describe the inner nature of the Church: “The Church is a cultivated field, the
tillage of God (cf. 1 Cor 3:9). On that land the ancient olive tree grows whose holy
roots were the prophets and in which the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles has
been brought about and will be brought about again (Rom 11:13-26). That land,
like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the heavenly cultivator (Mt 21:33-43;
cf. Is 5:1f). Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the bran-
ches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ without whom we
can do nothing (Jn 15:1-5).
“Often, too, the Church is called the building of God (1 Cor 3:9). The Lord com-
pared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into
the cornerstone (Mt 21:42; cf. Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:7; Ps 117:22). On this founda-
tion the Church is built by the Apostles (cf. 1 Cor 3:11) and from it the Church
receives solidity and unity. This edifice has many names to describe it—the
house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit (Eph
2:19:22); the dwelling-place of God among men (Rev 21:3); and, especially, the
holy temple. This temple, symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is
praised by the Fathers and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the
Holy City, the New Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it
(1 Pet 2:5). It is this holy city that is seen by John as it comes down out of hea-
ven from God when the world is made anew, prepared like a bride adorned for her
husband (Rev 21:1f)” (”Lumen Gentium”, 6).
The Lord wants Christians to be living stones in this building and has associated
them in the redemptive task of saving all mankind, so that in the course of their
own redemption they might also be co-redeemers with him, completing “what is
lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col
1:24): “Jesus has wanted every person to cooperate freely in the work of redemp-
tion [...]. The work of salvation is still going on, and each one of us has a part in
it [...]. It is worth while putting our lives on the line, giving ourselves completely,
so as to answer to the love and the confidence that God has placed in us. It is
worth while, above all, to decide to take our Christian faith seriously” (St. J. Es-
criva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 129).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.